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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Nice Start to the Day - CTA Attendant Yells at Me!

FYI - sarcasm is easily lost over the Internet, and the headline above was intended to be sarcastic.

The CTA Roosevelt stop is part of my daily weekday routine. Usually it's uneventful (and I can even go out on a limb and say an enjoyable start to my day). The CTA train tracker usually helps me time my trip pretty efficiently and the day starts out smoothly.

Well today was slightly different.

As I approached the turnstiles at the entrance to the Green/Orange line Roosevelt stop, one of the CTA attendants was trying to help an elderly Asian man who didn't appear to speak English (by help, I mean push him to the proper turnstile). In doing so, she was partially blocking the turnstile I was trying to access.

Like a normal person, I said, "excuse me." There was no demonstrative tone or any ill will, it was just a simple "excuse me."

Apparently, the CTA attendant didn't see it this way and as a result decided it would be a good idea to yell at me across the station as I was walking away. I stopped and said, "I said 'excuse me', it wasn't like I pushed you out of my way."

Anyway, I obviously touched a nerve, but it seems silly. I'm not letting this affect my day, but it's just funny how something so minor can prompt such an irrational response.

Usually I assume that yelling might come in a more serious and warranted setting (maybe at work or somewhere else). Thanks to this CTA attendant for starting my day off with an unnecessarily early yelling session.

Really people? It was one post about people (CTA employee) in our area. I would agree, when reading this post, that this stuff happens to me often at the Roosevelt stop so I appreciate the post to let me know it is not just be who gets attitude for no reason from some (note only some) of the CTA employees. Keep on Sloopin!

If you don't say excuse me, what are you supposed to say? What's the polite way to get around a crowd of people taking up the whole sidewalk and walking too slow. If I don't say anything, and try and slide past, they seem just as annoyed.

I will take posts like this all day over some of the posts on the south loop connection blog. For example have you seen the some of the posts by that 'professional organizer'? They are basically advertisements!

I can certainly relate to how an experience like this can really sour your day!

I love this blog! But I feel like a lot of the commenters need to chill out more often then not.

Maybe the owner of the blog can do a story on what they had for breakfast today. I understand this is free but come on!

It seems like a lot people read this so why not get some revenue for local businesses to put up ads or coupons. Maybe that way the people who read this won't defend you are doing this for free and we won't need to hear about your day.

Here is a post suggestion. Many of the cashiers at jewel are rude and speak using poor grammar

Wow, there sure are a lot of douche bags in the Sloop... (At least on the internet that is) If you don't like the content of the blog move along until another post catches your attention. Or better yet, just don't bother commenting, no one really cares to hear your bitching anymore than you care to read about it on here...

Actually, I appreciated this post. Not to tar all city/transit agency employees with the same brush, but there have been a number of instances similar to this one where I wish the city/transit agency would provide some type of instruction in customer service to employees on the "front lines" (CTA, the traffic management guys, etc.) Wishful thinking, I suppose.